Non-profit Business Plan: A Roadmap to Achieve Goals

Almost 10 million non-profit organizations are worldwide! 

These organizations work hard to help people in need and do all of this without expecting to make any profit. However, doing charity work is more challenging than it seems, they also face challenges due to a lack of financial stability. In many cases, non-profits are sunk before they start, here a perfect business plan is the only option that can float it.

Every non-profit should have a proper business plan that directs the roadmap for reaching the desired goal. Maybe it takes a little time, but trust me, a well-planned business plan is a game changer. 

In this blog, we will discuss the non-profit business plan, why businesses need it, and how to create a perfect one for your non-profit organization. 

Let’s dive in.

Non-profit business plan – What is it?

“Non-profit business plan” might make you wonder if non-profits are starting businesses or why a charity would need it. Here’s the truth: non-profits can’t rely solely on donations. They need sustainable income sources to keep their mission alive. 

A non-profit business plan is similar to a for-profit plan, but instead of distributing profits, the funds are reinvested to support the organization’s charitable activities. These profits help sustain and grow the mission of the non-profit.

It’s a strategic document that outlines the organization’s mission, goals, operational framework, and impact. It will explain how this organization is planned to achieve its objectives, manage grants, secure funding, and run its activities over time. However, non-profit business plans are essential for attracting donors, guiding growth, and ensuring your non-profits remain capable of fulfilling their mission.

Why do non-profits need a business plan?

Every organization should have a plan to run its activities, non-profits are no exception. When you are starting a non-profit, having a plan is essential to secure funding for it, as its activities totally depend on it. Here, a solid business plan can remove this headache. Some reasons why you need a non-profit business plan include:

• It helps to lay out your organization’s mission, vision, and goals.
• Ensure transparency about the organization’s activities and investments.
• Attract the Board of members, partners, and stakeholders.
• Securing the funding source and knowing the beneficiaries and supporters.
• Outlining operational details, and key responsibilities of the boards and general members.
• Evaluate options and make informed choices that align with your mission and goals.
• Identifying possible financial loss and strategies to recover from this.

However, a non-profit business plan makes prioritizing essential tasks for an organization’s operation easier. So execute a business plan today and start to work towards your mission.

How to write a non-profit business plan?

Business plans are living documents for an organization, this can be changed and updated as priority shifts. A business plan for a non-profit requires very basic steps, it remains the same for every organization. Here’s how to write a business plan for a nonprofit in 8 simple steps!

• Create an executive summary
• Prepare mission and vision statement
• Describes programs and services
• Conduct market research
• Outlines financial strategies
• Create operational plan
• Write an impact plan
• Appendices

Create an executive summary

When drafting a business plan for your non-profit, the first step is to prepare an executive summary. This section provides a concise overview of your organization’s mission, key objectives, and the programs or services you plan to offer. When supporters, investors, granting bodies, and volunteers can see you are transparent with your executive summary they are most like to trust you with their time and money.

Keep the explanation clear and straightforward so that anyone reading it can quickly understand the purpose and goals of your organization. Additionally, ensure your plan is adaptable to accommodate any necessary changes in the future.

Prepare mission and vision statement 

As you’re starting an organization, you must have a vision for this. Right?

A well-defined purpose and long-term aspiration inspire people to engage with your cause. When stakeholders, and supporters, see that your mission aligns with their values, they’re more likely to invest. Preparing a mission and vision statement might sound simple, but crafting it is the most important part of your business plan as it describes how your organization’s work makes a difference to the world.

Here are some examples of non-profits that have a clear online presence with their vision:

American Red Cross: Provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and education.
UNICEF: Works to improve the lives of children and their families worldwide.
Doctors Without Borders: Delivers medical care to those affected by conflict, epidemics, and disasters.
World Wildlife Fund: Focuses on wildlife conservation and reducing human impact on the environment.
Habitat for Humanity: Builds and renovates affordable housing for families in need.

Describes programs and services

As you’re crafting a business plan, it means you are planning to offer products or services to your audience. In this section, summarize your organization’s offerings, including detailed descriptions of programs and services. Highlight from whom the programs are for, the services you provide, and the beneficiaries you aim to help.

For example, Suppose, you sell educational products for school-going kids and use the profits to support children who can’t afford schooling, make this clear.

Explain your programs like this, because readers care about the programs and their effect most. Most importantly, this helps people understand your impact.

Pro Tip: Use visuals like photos and videos of your programs to provide a clearer, more compelling picture of your work.

Conduct marketing research 

It’s often said to work hard, but working smarter is the real game-changer. Market research plays a pivotal role in any business plan, including non-profits. Without understanding your market, you can’t effectively target the right audience or offer the right products or services.

Start by researching your local area to identify the needs of your non-profit. What products or services are in demand? Are other organizations offering similar solutions? Figure out how to improve their offerings to stand out while ensuring sustainability and profitability.

Pro Tip: Learn from others’ successes. Analyze how similar organizations operate, and identify what makes them successful. Use these insights to refine your approach and enhance your chances of success.

Outline financial strategies

Yes, that’s true, you can start a non-profit organization with no money! However, organizations need a certain level of financial support to stay operational. Every non-profit should have a financial plan to cover its basic requirements. Outline clear financial strategies, where you will mention and explain all of your funding sources and expenses. First, this plan will include the following revenue stream:

• Board members contributions 
• Stakeholders participation
• Grants 
• Significant supporter donation
• Self contribution 
• Loan from bank
• Fundraising campaign plan

Then do the same for the expenses of your organization.

• Programs expense
• Product making cost 
• Service cost
• Bank loans 
• Salaries 
• Typical bills and more.

People value transparency, especially in financial matters. Sharing how funding is received and spent, as it builds trust in your organization.

Create operational plan

Once you’ve finalized the program and financial budget, the next crucial step is creating an operational plan, a roadmap for launching your initiatives. This plan should detail how to execute the programs and activities you aim to offer.

Outline a day-to-day schedule for each event, assign roles to team members, and specify their responsibilities. Include details on product production, a list of suppliers, required equipment, and warehousing needs. Finally, highlight partnerships with other organizations and outline your collaborative commitments to achieve your goals.

Write an impact plan

Impact plan is the more part of your business plan. As a non-profit, you are working to create a positive societal change, not generating revenue. A clear and well-defined impact plan demonstrates the tangible difference your work aims to make. This plan includes the following steps:

• The impact you aim to achieve: Define your mission and goals.
• Steps to accomplish it: Outline actionable strategies to meet these goals.
• Key collaborators: Identify who will support your efforts.
• Expected results: Highlight measurable outcomes of your initiatives.

These are the key buttons for unlocking support for various stakeholders, as it outline the societal benefits your work delivers. Because funders love to know how their contributions will create a meaningful impact

For example, You are working to ensure food for 200 people in the upcoming year. Write your impact plan like this.

Appendices

Appendices contain additional helpful documents of your non-profit organizations. This could be documents such as:

• Research papers about your beneficiaries
• Articles highlighting your nonprofit’s past achievements.
• List of board members.
• Fiscal year budget.
• An organizational structure chart.
• Your IRS determination letter.

This is a very basic of your non-profit private documents, make it concise and understandable only for you.

Fundraising tool for your non-profit 

Here’s a bonus tip for you! Planning to raise funds online? Meet Paymattic, a dynamic WordPress plugin trusted by over 3,000 nonprofits worldwide.

With Paymattic, you can create powerful donation forms and start collecting donations in just minutes. It supports 12+ payment gateways and 135+ currencies, offering secure global transactions. From recurring donations and donor dashboards to leaderboards and progress bars, Paymattic has everything you need in one package, with no extra add-ons required.

If you ask me the best part, I’d say it’s pricing! Just visit the pricing page and see how affordable it is, starts only at $4.99 per month. Don’t wait, give Paymattic a try today and see the difference yourself! Here is a demo of a donation form created with Paymattic.

Ready to achieve your goal with non-profit business plan?

Every non-profit has a business plan, but not all succeed due to a lack of proper awareness and execution.  You are not the only non-profit that is creating business plans for non-profits, so make sure you are crafting and executing the plan well. Remember, if you want your dream to come true then put effort into making it work and treat your plan with the importance it deserves.

We hope this article will help you to write non-profit business plans. As a donation plugin we always write for non-profits, visit our website to get more informative articles like this. Feel free to comment below for any quires. 

Click here, to learn more about Paymattic, an all-in-one fundraising tool for your non-profit.